Adios South America! G'Day Australia!

Ryan attempting to sleep while standing, on the Buenos Aires subway en route to the football match.

Through the crowd you can see diligent Argentinian firemen awaiting to quell any soccer rioters with their gigantic hose.

A young Penner readies himself for another busy day of coding downunder. Note the size of his unusually large forearms.

Well, the Super Cama bus from Salta was absolutely amazing, exactly as I had imagined it. We just lay in leather beds that floated over the highway while watching Steven Seagal movies. The sleep was a little less than fantastic, owing to the fact that I was so excited about being in Super Cama, that I couldn't fall asleep. It may sound stupid, but Jason had the same problem and we both arrived into Buenos Aires quite tuckered out. We caught Ry as he headed out for his first rugby game, so joined him for that. Mainly we sat around in the suburbs of BA, drinking some beers, watching rugby and eating giant meat sandwiches, while trying to stay awake.

That night we decided to celebrate my 'last' night in South America by visiting Opera Bay, one of the biggest nightclubs in Buenos Aires and seemed to be some kind of a sign as it looked to be fashioned after the Sydney Opera house. Had a great night there and stumbled out sometime around 7am. From there ole Jas had a nap, then we were off to a Riverplate vs. Racing football match. Great game (including the play that I would later see on CNN's sports highlight of the week), great crowd, great atmosphere. Was great watching mobs of angry Riverplate fans hunt down Racing fans throughout the city after the game.

Following this, I went to the airport and was kindly told that my flight had been cancelled a week ago, but because I had no contact information, they weren't able to inform me (much to my excitement, I was actually listed as a 'Transient'). Luckily the woman took pity on me and got me return transportation to/from the airport, two nights at a hotshot hotel and all my meals paid for. Needless to say much of my last two days in BA would be spent as a dirty backpacker amongst some of Argentina's most upstanding citizens, eating all their food and never shutting off my blaring TV, according to Mr. Lush, a classic fish-out-of-water situation.

I surprised Jas and Ry the next morning and we decided to make the best of the situation by going to see Creedence Clearwater Revisited that night. Not knowing much about any recent news from CCR, we didn't realize that John Fogarty had been replaced with another guy named John who sounds exactly like him, hence the revisited and not the revival. Regardless, the other members of the band are still there and whoever that guy was, they all put on a great show.

I was given another scare when I attempted to catch the next flight to Sydney on May 9th. Arriving at the checkin counter, the woman furiously typed away in her computer and talked on the phone before announcing in broken english that the Australian government had a problem with my name. The only thing I could think of was maybe a guy named Blanchet was on some kind of watch list, but after about 25 minutes with three more people coming over and contacting the Australian embassy, I was let through, later to find she was just concerned because I didn't have an Australian visa, which I obviously don't need.

Flight to Ozland was good, Jason and I spent a considerable amount of time debating the affects on my future after essentially just missing the 10th of May. The end conclusion was that although we don't know what kind of cascading temporal turmoil this will cause, something bad is sure to come of it.

Arriving into Sydney, I somehow managed to navigate their monstrous underground train/bus network and found myself outside of Penner's door (a buddy from school/work who now lives in Bondi Beach), where I am now. I have yet to see any kangaroos, crocs or dingos, but I have noticed that almost no one speaks Spanish and they drive on the left side of the road.